Eye structure, activity rhythms, and visually-driven behavior are tuned to visual niche in ants
Zitieren Sie bitte immer diese URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119595
- Insects have evolved physiological adaptations and behavioral strategies that allow them to cope with a broad spectrum of environmental challenges and contribute to their evolutionary success. Visual performance plays a key role in this success. Correlates between life style and eye organization have been reported in various insect species. Yet, if and how visual ecology translates effectively into different visual discrimination and learning capabilities has been less explored. Here we report results from optical and behavioral analysesInsects have evolved physiological adaptations and behavioral strategies that allow them to cope with a broad spectrum of environmental challenges and contribute to their evolutionary success. Visual performance plays a key role in this success. Correlates between life style and eye organization have been reported in various insect species. Yet, if and how visual ecology translates effectively into different visual discrimination and learning capabilities has been less explored. Here we report results from optical and behavioral analyses performed in two sympatric ant species, Formica cunicularia and Camponotus aethiops. We show that the former are diurnal while the latter are cathemeral. Accordingly, F. cunicularia workers present compound eyes with higher resolution, while C. aethiops workers exhibit eyes with lower resolution but higher sensitivity. The discrimination and learning of visual stimuli differs significantly between these species in controlled dual-choice experiments: discrimination learning of small-field visual stimuli is achieved by F. cunicularia but not by C. aethiops, while both species master the discrimination of large-field visual stimuli. Our work thus provides a paradigmatic example about how timing of foraging activities and visual environment match the organization of compound eyes and visually-driven behavior. This correspondence underlines the relevance of an ecological/evolutionary framework for analyses in behavioral neuroscience.…
Autor(en): | Ayse Yilmaz, Volkan Aksoy, Yilmaz Camlitepe, Martin Giurfa |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119595 |
Dokumentart: | Artikel / Aufsatz in einer Zeitschrift |
Institute der Universität: | Fakultät für Biologie / Theodor-Boveri-Institut für Biowissenschaften |
Sprache der Veröffentlichung: | Englisch |
Titel des übergeordneten Werkes / der Zeitschrift (Englisch): | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
Erscheinungsjahr: | 2014 |
Band / Jahrgang: | 8 |
Seitenangabe: | 205 |
Originalveröffentlichung / Quelle: | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 8:205. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00205 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00205 |
PubMed-ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24982621 |
Allgemeine fachliche Zuordnung (DDC-Klassifikation): | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 595 Arthropoden (Gliederfüßer) |
Freie Schlagwort(e): | activity rhythm; ant; camponotus aethiops; compound eye; formica cunicularia; visual learning |
Datum der Freischaltung: | 11.11.2015 |
Lizenz (Deutsch): | CC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung |